12of36A San Francisco Chronicle editorial urges a yes vote on a proposition to fund the construction of the Bay Model on Oct. 16, 1952.

13of36U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model, July 6, 1956

14of36San Francisco Chronicle article on the beginning of tests on the Reber Plan for the bay, on the Bay Model, 7

15of36Gen. A.H. Frye Jr. checks Dillon Point Barrier on the Bay Model on July 30, 1963.Photo: Bob Campbell, The Chronicle

16of36Haygood Dewy and John Reber inspect the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model on July 6, 1956.Photo: Vincent Maggiora, The Chronicle

17of36The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers San Francisco Bay Model is housed in Sausalito.

18of36The opening of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model on June 14, 1957.

19of36Gen. Glasgaw, Floyd V. Hicks, G. Gude check out the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model after it was expanded to include the delta, Aug. 22, 1969.Photo: Vincent Maggiora, The Chronicle

20of36Visitors inspect the San Francisco Bay Model after it had been enlarged to include the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.Photo: Vincent Maggiora, The Chronicle

21of36The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model on Sept. 6, 1986.Photo: Chris Stewart, The Chronicle

22of36The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model in Sausalito on Sept. 6, 1986.Photo: Chris Stewart, The Chronicle

23of36A San Francisco Chronicle article on the opening of the Bay Model, June 15, 1957.

24of36Gen. Glasgaw, Floyd V. Hicks, G. Gude visit the San Francisco Bay Model in Sausalito after it had been expanded to include the delta on Aug. 22, 1969.Photo: Vincent Maggiora, The Chronicle

25of36Park ranger Ed Griggs poured a small beaker of oil into the Bay Model while oil company representatives and legislators looked on. The demonstration was to show the usefulness of the model in case of an oil spill, Nov. 8, 1989.Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

26of36The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model is one of the few physical models of estuary systems left in the country. It is still used by the Army Corps of Engineers, who built it, seen on March 20, 1999.Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle

27of36U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model in Sausalito, built in the 1950s to test a proposal to dam parts of the bay, March 20, 1999.Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle

28of36The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model, March 20, 1999.Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle

29of36The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Bay Model, March 20, 1999.Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle

30of36Installations like these demonstrate how water flows through the bay in the San Francisco Bay Model, March 20, 1999.Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle

32of36Visitors to the San Francisco-Delta Bay Model in Sausalito can see nearly 350 square miles of bay, land, rivers, ocean, islands and wetlands in a 2-acre space, March 20, 1999.Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle

36of36Enviromentalist groups are looking at the flow of oil at the bay model to demonstrate what happens during a "reasonable worse case scenario”: a tanker going aground during a flood tide on the Benecia Bridge and spilling 120,000 barrels of oil.Photo: VINCE MAGGIORA, SFC

If you know where to go, you can walk around the entirety of San Francisco Bay in just a few minutes.

The giant Bay Model in Sausalito isn't the most popular tourist attraction in the region, but it has been helping researchers and entertaining visitors for decades. I was in The Chronicle’s archive looking for photos of the 2-acre Paradise in Panorama relief map of California when I found photos, negatives and stories on the scale model of the bay, which has been vital to the health of the real thing since its completion.

In the early 1950s, the bay’s future was murky. Many plans were being batted around about what do with the water, the coastline and the wetlands in between. The Reber Plan, for instance, called for the creation of freshwater lakes by partitioning the bay with solid-fill barriers running parallel to the Richmond-San Rafael and Bay bridges.

Planners were also considering a barrier to divert freshwater to Santa Clara and southern Alameda counties to satiate the area’s thousands of acres of orchards.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation believed these plans needed to be tested on a model first. They were so adamant, in fact, that they put up half the money for the model’s construction: $250,000. Gen. Robert H. Wylie, manager of the Port of San Francisco, also chimed in:

“The model is something essential to San Francisco Bay,” he said. “There are two ways to to find out if solid barriers would work. The first is to build the model. Second, is to build the barrier in the bay at tremendous expense, and then perhaps find that you’ve been wrong in doing it.”

Lo and behold, the Legislature came up with the rest of the money and on June 14, 1957, San Francisco Mayor George Christopher threw the switch and the mini-waves started rolling in the model. Testing began soon after.

The Army Corps of Engineers would use the Bay Model to approve some plans and reject others, including the freshwater lake proposal. The projects continued over the years and in 1969 builders added the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to the model.

While the humongous Paradise in Panorama map of California has been boxed up for more than 50 years, the Bay Model still draws visitors to Sausalito and remains an education center today.

Bill Van Niekerken is the library director of The San Francisco Chronicle, where he has worked since 1985. In his weekly column, From the Archive, he explores the depths of The Chronicle’s vast archive in search of interesting historical tales related to the city by the bay.

Bill Van Niekerken is the Library Director of the San Francisco Chronicle. He does research for reporters and editors and manages the photos, negatives and text archives. He has a weekly column “From the Archive”, that focuses on photo coverage of historic events. For this column Bill scans and publishes 20-30 images from photos and negatives that haven’t been seen in many years.

Bill started working at the Mercury News in 1980, when nothing in news libraries was digital. Research was done using paper clippings, and cameras shot film. He moved to the Chronicle in 1985, just as the library was beginning their digital text archive.